How easy it can be to get the visitors from hell,You know those mongrels from the city who invite themselves to stay,They only want a holiday where they don't have to pay.'

From The Cattle Dog's Revenge by Jack Drake

Hundreds of people have made their annual migration to Casino to celebrate Australian heritage in the form of bush poetry and traditional camp oven cooking.

Wordsmith and performer Jack Drake will be teaching the crowds to write and recite bush poetry, which he said was thriving as an art form in regional Australia.

"Up until about 1988 in the Bicentennial Year, all of a sudden Australians collectively became aware that they had a history of their own and they didn't need to ape America and England and we discovered our culture," he said.

"The very first bush poetry event in Tamworth had six poets and an audience of two... now every venue is virtually packed out and it's not unusual to perform to a crowd of 1000 or more."

Camp oven cook Andy Shaw said interest was also still strong in traditional methods of bush cooking.

"My dad was a bushy, he had the old camp ovens and cooked all the time in them," he said.

"You can cook anything in your camp oven that you can on the stove.

"If you put one in the oven at home and one in the camp oven and put them at a table, the camp oven (food) will go first."

The festival is held at the Casino RV Village from Friday to Sunday.

- Audio from interviews with Mr Drake and Mr Shaw is attached for download.